In many countries, governments cut internet access to curb freedom of speech and disrupt political dissent or those organizing online without hesitation.

It can be a very effective means of control and is one that some governments are leaning on in an increasingly authoritarian and menacing manner.

With the intrinsic importance of the internet to everyday life and essential technologies across the world, however, shutdowns not only hurt businesses and impede on liberty, but can actually cost lives.

Look, I know these are volatile times for the tech giants of Silicon Valley. There are the ongoing travails at Facebook and the worldwide demand that Mark Zuckerberg faces the music on his company’s perceived unhealthy influence.

Share prices yo-yo wildly. In the space of just a few hours, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google lost a collective $172bn in value. Google employees have also turned militant, with staff walking out at 50 locations in protest against harassment and discrimination within the company.

You, like me, must have wondered at one time or another where the “line” is when it comes to Twitter suspensions. I’ve seen overt racists, abusers, misogynists, and hot-take artists thrive on the app, so it must take something seriously drastic to actually get suspended, right?

On All Hallows’ Eve, I saw a clearly photoshopped image of a Monster Energy-infused ham product (a meme made by Adam The Creator). As a normal person, I was disgusted and downright bewildered that someone took the time to do this, but as a Twitter user addicted to those sweet, sweet likes and retweets, I saw gold. I saved the image to my phone, came up with a caption using a made-up word, and hit the tweet button. Regular stuff. The likes, retweets, and mentions started pouring in and everything was good.

Den 2 november 1988 gjorde MIT-doktoranden Robert Tappan Morris ett litet experiment som fick stora konsekvenser, både för honom och för hela internet.

Morris, en virusmask döpt efter sin skapare, lyckades på kort tid i princip släcka hela internet för exakt 30 år sedan i dag. Techworlds Sanna Ristrand skrev ett reportage om masken 2015. Den texten hittar du här.

Hackers appear to have compromised and published private messages from at least 81,000 Facebook users’ accounts.

The perpetrators told the BBC Russian Service that they had details from a total of 120 million accounts, whoch they were attempting to sell, although there are reasons to be sceptical about that figure.

Facebook said its security had not been compromised.

And the data had probably been obtained through malicious browser extensions.